worldofvimanika

Vimanika Juniors

2010-06-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

Vimanika is synonymous with graphic novels based on Indian Mythology. The enthusiastic response from our fans has validated the hard effort we put in our work. The entire team at Vimanika thanks our fans with the bottom of our heart. For some time we have been toying with an idea but we will like to take an opinion from our fans.

Would you like to like to read the exploits of our super heroes when they were kids in comics format? Have you read about Lord Krishna’s leela at gokul or the exploits of a naughty lord Hanuman who was determined to swallow the sun? Do you know How Hanuman acquired the Name? Not many people know that he was previously called Anjaneya? The birth of Lord Ganesh and his duel with Lord Shiva is legendary.

Contrary to fictitious stories churned out by various serials our series will be well researched and completely authentic. Opinion of every Vimanik will be considered before we plan a new series.

Selling Books vs Promoting Indian Culture

2010-05-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

No one starts a venture to make a loss. So how does Vimanika differ from other comics publishing houses? The one significant difference we have with our counterparts is our vision.

What is the vision of Vimanika comics?

The vision of Vimanika Comics is to promote Indian mythology and culture among Indian Kids and youth. The kids and the youth are the future of the country. The culture they imbibe shall be instrumental in determining the identity of our nation.
Look around. In a bid to appease our western counterparts we have belittled our own civilization. We don’t take pride in our culture. Our history is full of exploits of warriors and wisdom of sages. Yet we choose to look up to imported superheroes as role models. Vimanika hopes to reverse this trend. We shall pursue our goal relentlessly until the mission is accomplished. Our stories will have a contemporary feel without diluting the ethos of these stories. The research tem comprises of scholars who have devoted their life exploring the Indian Culture.

So as a reader what is your role? How can you support us in our mission? Is it enough to buy the books? No; never.

Imbibe the virtues depicted by our glorious ancestors. Eg. Karna is the epitome of sacrifice. He is hailed as a great warrior despite being vanquished. Spread the word about our culture. Introduce them to the world of Vimanika where the culture is represented in the true form.

Let us leave a better legacy for our future generation.

Evolution of Vimanika

2010-05-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

I have been fortunate to be a part of a revolution called Vimanika since its inception. I met Karan even before the zero editions of the Moksha and the Sixth were released. You tend to size up the other person in your first meeting and I did the same. To me Karan was running a one man show. He was enthusiastic and passionate about his work but still a greenhorn. I asked him to diversify and venture into different genres. He refused and struck to Indian mythology. I thought he is taking a big gamble but he proved me wrong.

This led me to analyse the core philosophy of Vimanika. They wished to promote Indian culture and instill a sense of pride among its audience. They believed that superheroes in our mythology are better role models than the fictional super heroes created by western counterparts. Their philosophy has so far won them numerous awards and more are to follow.

After the initial reverses in team composition, finally team Vimanika has a settled look to it. The story telling is getting better with each title and the artwork has jumped several notches. The buzz around each title is getting bigger and this stands as a testimony to Vimanka's soaring popularity among its fans. Exciting new titles are about to make their debut. “I am Kalki” has been officially announced and the teaser promotion has generated a lot of interest among the fans.

What do we expect from team Vimanika? For sure, you can expect Avante grade artwork, engrossing storyline and more in depth & authentic knowledge of our glorious past. The revolution in Indian comics industry has been initiated. Sit tight, as we embark into a journey to our glorious past.

(The opinion in this post has been made by an avid fan who has studied the Indian comics industry from close quarters for the past few years.)

Official Launch of Karan Vir's Dashaavtar at Oxford Delhi

2010-05-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

Karan Vir's Dashaavtar and Moksha was launched at Delhi on April 10 at Oxford book store by Mr. Gurcharan Das Gupta, a reknowned Indian author and Mr. Karan Vir Arora, CEO of Vimanika Comics. Judging by the response of the fans and the media, the event was a resounding success.

Mr. Dasgupta stressed on the need to look up to our indigenious and virtous heroes in todays world when the moral values have reached a nadir. He also lamented the fact that Indians are hesitant to embrace their own culture and the glorious past. He applauded the efforts of Mr. Karan Vir Arora for recreating the Indian mythology with authencity and style and predicted a bright future for Vimanika Comics.

Mr. Karan Vir thanked all the loyal fans who were waiting eagerly for the launch of Dashaavtar. True to his promise, he unveiled a visual delight of Indian art and an authentic form of storytelling. During the interaction session he shared his passion for Indian Mythology and Indian superheroes emphasising their relevence in their current scenarios. The enthusiastic fans interacted on a host of topics ranging from style of artwork, future titles, plot lines and the message conveyed in these Graphic Novels. Gaurav an enthusiastic fan aged only eight showed his comics strips on mythological characters which drew a wide applause from Mr. Karan Vir and the Vimanika team.

The eager fans jostled for their autographed copy of Dashaavtar and Moksha with a few lucky ones managing to get personal snaps with Mr. Karan Vir. The event was covered by the leaders in print and electronic media.

After the successful delhi launch, the action shifts to Chandigarh. Catch all you Vimanikans in Chandigarh.

Meet a comic series that deifies the tiger!

2010-03-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

Vimanika Comics, which had earlier published two volumes of mythological comic books, will now launch the third of the series, Moksha, titled The White Tiger And The Gift. It is scheduled to release on March 10.

What's more, Vimanika comics has also announced that 5% of the Sales from the Issue # 03 Moksha "The White Tiger & the Gift" will go to Earth Matters Foundation that has supported the production of "The Return of the Tiger " directed by Mike Pandey and supported by
John Abraham.

Read the whole article here

'I started researching Karna’s story when I was 18'

2010-03-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

Mythology as retold through comics may not be something new for generations of Indians who have grown up on Amar Chitra Katha stories. But Hanuman with pectoral muscles the size of mini boulders and Karna as a dynamic young multi-millionaire are ideas that could attract a younger lot of readers to the genre. At least that’s what Karan Vir Arora, editor-in-chief of Vimanika Comics, hopes.

Read Karan's Hindustan Times interview here

Announcing the official launch of Karan Vir's Dashaavatar Vol 1!

2010-03-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

Vimanika Comics is going full steam ahead as the time nears for yet another milestone event in its colourful march ahead: the launch of Dashaavatar Vol 1 With Ranvijay Singh!

Ranvijay Singh of the roadies will be unveiling this premier graphic novel on March 10.

Date:	Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Time:	6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location:	Crosswords Bandra Linking Road, Mumbai, India

The white tiger and the gift: The next offering by Vimanika, coming soon!

2010-03-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

"I wanted to shake up the failing Indian comic book industry"

2010-02-24T03:32:00.000-08:00

Read Karan Vir's rediff.com interview here

Vimanika announces Sketch Karna contest winners

2010-02-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Mumbai based Vimanika Comics has announced the winners of its Sketch Karna contest. The contest had participants create their own sketch of Karna, Vimanika‘s mythological warrior. The winner of the contest is Dildeep Singh, whose services will be hired by Vimanika Comics for its upcoming projects.

Check out the results here

Karan appears on NDTV show!

2010-02-15T22:50:00.001-08:00

On February 11, Karan featured on NDTV's popular 'Money Mantra' show that took a closer look at the rise of entrepreneurship in India.

Watch the complete video here

Meet the 'heroic knight' of Vimanika Comics!

2010-02-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

"As a youngster, I used to love Lord of the Rings, but I realised that none of the world famous fantasy tales centre around Indian mythological heroes."

Yet another story about Karan Vir Arora and his dreams which culminated in India's best mythological comics -Vimanika.

Interested? Read this article completely

The Sketch Karna Contest cool Karna Statue in the making!

2010-02-02T00:47:00.000-08:00

He looks cool and a mythological hero to the hilt. Meet Karna, the hero of Vimanika's latest offering 'The Sixth: The Legend of Karna.' The curved bow and the drawn sword speak volumes about his warrior nature.

If you have joined Vimanika's 'Sketch Karna contest' you stand a chance to take him home.

So keep your fingers crossed, for the results!

Vimanika after a year!

2010-01-22T01:10:00.000-08:00

It was about a year ago that Mumbai-based Karan Vir Arora got the idea of opening an Indian comics company on the lines of international pop culture giants like DC comics, Marvel, and Dark Horse comics.

Thus came along Vimanika, an Indian comics company that publishes comics and graphic novels based exclusively on Indian mythology. Karan Vir Arora, director and editor-in- chief, Vimanika, believes that it wasn’t only the scarcity of Indian comic companies that propelled this venture.
It was a three-point agenda that included educating the youth around the world about Indian culture, heritage and spiritual values, the need to share the art of narration and visualisation to the world, which his brother indoctrinated in him from childhood.

“And we wanted our graphic novel titles to be created into live action movies and animated movies à la like Frank Miller’s 300, Superman and Batman,” he adds.

Read the complete article

Tale of a warrior

2010-01-13T04:11:00.000-08:00

The Karna story in the Mahabharata has always fascinated people.

Amitabh Bachchan's angry young man persona in the Seventies is an avatar of Karna — he is a victim of society, a skilled, resourceful warrior and generous to a fault. Karna is the archetypal anti-hero. So, it came as no surprise that Vimanika Comics chose this tragic character as the protagonist for its graphic novel series, The Sixth: The Legend of Karna. The slim, colourful book with its spirited illustrations was recently launched.

Read the whole story

So how did the Legend of Karna come about?

2009-12-31T02:29:00.000-08:00

Quite a few Vimaniks are right to wonder about how The Legend of Karna came about. Well, here is the secret, as revealed by Karan Vir Arora, the man behind the new graphic novel that brings the legendary warrior of the Mahabharata alive, like never before.

An encounter with a sage in Bihar took Karan Vir Arora, the conceptual director of Vimanika Comics, on a journey through Mahabharata. It was through the pages of this epic that he came across Karna, the sun warrior, who really inspired him.

Thus began a news article in Bengaluru's Deccan Herald, during the launch of the novel in the same metro recently.

“I was totally bored with the same old Batman, Spiderman and Superman kind of comics. There’s actually a whole genre of comics that people have not even heard of so when I came across Karna, I thought he would be a new and colourful character for the Indian reader. Moreover, each time we hear only Krishna’s version. Through this novel, we would like to show people Karna’s version,” explained Karan, as he spoke about the genesis of the mythological character.

Read the article here

And here's wishing you Vimaniks a great new year ahead!

The Vimanika Online Sketching Contest is on from Dec 18!

2009-12-17T02:28:00.000-08:00

Vimanika Comics and Chitrakatha Documentary Project, in association with Animation Express brings you a once-in-a- lifetime chance to create your own version of Vimanika’s Karna and win an exclusive and impressive Karna Statue crafted for the winner of the contest.

Become a part of the Legend himself by drawing your own version of India’s very own superhero and send it to us. Winning entries will be published in future issues of Vimanika Comics and if we like your drawings you can also win some quite a few awesome Vimanika gift hampers.

All you have to do is, sketch your version of the Vimanika's legendary warrior Karna with a background, adorn him with his divine Kavach and Kundals, any two of his weapons 1) Bow and Arrow or 2) Metallic whiplash.

Mail your entry to us on sketchkarnacontest@vimanika.com

Here are the rules:

a) Your entries should be in 300 DPI resolution and maximum of 5 MB in size.
A participant can send as many entries as he/she wants.

b) Do not forget to mention your name, age, contact no., email and postal address along with your masterpiece.

Do not forget:

Contest starts on Dec 18th; final date for submission of entries is Jan 10th, 2010

So what are you waiting for, pick up your tools and create your own version of Vimanika’s Karna the legendary warrior of all time!

Vimanika’s graphical tryst with Karna

2009-12-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

The December 8 launch of the 'Legend of Karna' received some excellent media coverage. Here are some excerpts from the many nice things Bangalore Mirror said about
Vimanika Comics as well as Karan Vir Arora, its tour de force:

"The scene is the present. The protagonist is from way back. Karna, the unfortunate hero of The Mahabharata, comes back as a contemporary reincarnation in the form of business tycoon Karan Vir. Never mind that it is also the name of the man behind the latest graphic novel The Sixth: The Legend of Karna. Karan Vir Arora, editor-in-chief of Vimanika Comics, hopes to give Indian mythology a graphic novel treatment.

He explains, “Graphic novels are visually appealing with very colourful pictures. They are in book format and have thicker pages than comics. I realised that there was a vacuum of new concepts as big publication houses continued with the same old style of comics. I felt that readers were getting bored and so decided to introduce mythology in this form. I aim to create mythology and comic cult in India.”

The report goes on to explain the scenes behind the creation of this graphic novel, dwelling upon the efforts of Deepam Chatterjee, its writer as well Amit Thayal, the man in charge of the graphics themselves.

karan Vir himself shed light on the upcoming issue saying: “The next book will pick up when Karna is 12-years-old. The story of Karna is unravelled to his present day reincarnation,
Karan Vir."

Tryst with graphic Karna: Read the complete article here

Legend of Karna, now in Bangalore!

2009-12-08T06:02:00.000-08:00

Following its November launch in Mumbai, The Sixth: The Legend of Karna will be released in Bangalore today. Acording to Karan Vir Arora, the driving force behind Vimanika Comics, the publishers of 'The Legend...', Bangalore has long been a nerve centre of graphic comic culture.

Priced attractively at Rs 150, 'The Legend of Karna' is undoubtedly a good buy, feels Karan.
The latest edition features an advanced graphic version of the life and times of Karna, as well as his re-incarnation, a multimillionaire do-gooder named Karan Vir Oberoi.

Where in Bangalore: Oxford Book Store, Leela Galleria, Leela Palace

Vimanika Jai Ho!

2009-11-20T17:30:00.000-08:00

Vimanika has done it again. On October 21, Vimanika launched what is perhaps one of its most prestigious projects till date – 'The Sixth-The Legend of Karna' - a graphic novel based on the firstborn son of Kunti who would go on to play a significant legendary role in the mother of all battles – the Mahabharata.

Compartmentalized into two sections, 'The Legend...' traces the genesis of Karna, borne of the union of Kunti, the daughter of King Kuntibhoj and Surya, the Sun God, thanks to a boon granted to Kunti by Durvasa, the mean-tempered sage.

The story is brought to life by superb graphics and riveting dialogues. Quite a lot of research has gone into the making of the legend, which becomes apparent as one traverses the pages, on a mythological trip.

The first section deals with the return of the young multi-millionaire Karan Vir Oberoi who has mysterious experiences – he has recurring dreams of a mythical Indian warrior who chants Sanskrit shlokas. While in Chicago on a business trip, he is set upon by assailants, none of which make any sense to Karan. However, his curiosity is piqued and as per his mother's suggestion, he sets out to India to seek answers.

'The Legend..' is the first Indian graphic novel to debut in the US; it shall be released in fifteen more volumes. Vimanika also has plans to enter the mobile platform as well as gaming and animation soon.

Credits:
Concept: Karan Vir Arora
Script: Deepam Chatterjee
Art: Amit Thayal
Colorist: Ashwin C